How to prevent 99,000 kittens a year

Updated 7:16 pm, Saturday, May 26, 2012

One day, Barbara found a cat and four kittens under her deck. She nicknamed the mother Daisy and checked on the family of five every day.

When the kittens were old enough, she found homes for each one. When it was time to scoop up Daisy and take her to the shelter, she had moved on. Daisy was not yet sterilized so the chance of her having another litter of kittens later in the summer is almost a certainty. In fact, she was probably already in heat.

One free-roaming cat like Daisy can deliver one to three litters of kittens per year. Each litter is about four to six kittens, so one female cat may deliver 18 kittens annually.

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That may not sound like a lot, but kittens add up quickly. According to Best Friends Animal Society, San Antonio has about 11,000 free-roaming felines. If just half of these felines are female, they could produce up to 99,000 kittens annually.

That's why San Antonio is getting aggressive about cat issues, from TNR programs to special adoption events just for cats.

In May, Animal Care Services received a $700,000 three-year grant from PetSmart Charities and Best Friends Animal Society to fund the “Community Cats Project.” This program will help reduce euthanasia of cats by sterilizing 10,500 free-roaming felines — 3,500 a year — over the next three years.

According to Bethany Heins, the Community Cat Program Coordinator, ACS has three benchmarks to achieve: a 25 percent reduction in cat euthanasia by March 2013; a 10 percent reduction in cat intake by March 2014, and a 30 percent increase in the live release rate by March 2015. Working with area cat caretakers and trappers, the grant will sterilize cats in 14 high-intake ZIP code areas.

How can you help? If you have a situation like Barbara's, trap the mother cat before removing the kittens and contact ACS about getting her sterilized. If she is tame, they will put her up for adoption. If she is a free-roaming cat, they will find a colony for her to join.

You can also adopt a cat. Only 1,226 cats were adopted from ACS in 2011 so we can do better here in finding more homes for cats. ACS charges $29 for cat adoptions.

During June's Adopt-A-Cat month, the Animal Defense League will offer $20 kitten and $15 cat adoptions — and $10 off on Meow Mondays during the rest of the summer. On June 30, the San Antonio Humane Society will offer $15 kitten adoptions and fee-waived adoptions for cats 4 months and older. Every agency vaccinates, sterilizes and often microchips each cat.